Dictionary of islamic architecture

Early Period
Possibly the oldest Ottoman building is the Etrugrul
Mescit in Sögüt 40 km south-east of Iznik which
dates from the first years of the fourteenth century.
The mosque has been significantly altered by the
addition of a minaret and tall arched windows
although its essential form of a tall cube capped by
a dome remains unchanged. More au-thentic and
better dated is the Haci Özbek Cami at Iznik which
is dated to 1333, two years after the capture of the
city from the Byzantines. Like the mosque at Sögüt
the Haci Özbek Cami is a small cube covered with
an almost hemispherical dome (radius 4 m) resting
on a zone of Turkish triangles. The original portico
was on the west side (i.e. at right angles to the qibla)
and consisted of three bays resting on two marble
columns. Two of the bays were covered by barrel
vaults, whilst that above the entrance was covered
with a cross vault; the north and south sides of the
portico were walled in as protection against the
wind. Other early Ottoman mosques include the
Alaettin Cami at Bursa and the Orhan Ghazi Cami
at Bilecik. The Aleattin Cami was built in 1335 after
the Ottoman capture of Bursa and is of a similar
form and size to the Haci Özbek Cami except that
the portico and entrance is on the north side in line
with the mihrab. The Orhan Ghazi also has a similar
plan but here the size of the prayer hall is increased
by four large (approximately 9 by 2.5 m) arched
recesses which make it twice as large as the Haci
Özbek Cami whose dome is approximately the
same size. The walls are pierced with windows and
the mihrab is flanked by two large windows in an
arrangement which became standard in later
Ottoman mosques. The Orhan Ghazi Mosque also
has a detached minaret which may be the oldest
surviving Ottoman minaret.
The next major development in Ottoman mosque
architecture is the Yesil Cami at Iznik built in the late
Sixteenth-century Ottoman fortress at Ras al-
Ayn, Israel/Palestine

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Ottomans (Turkish: Osmanli)
fourteenth century (1378–92). This is one of the first
buildings for which the name of the architect is
known (Haci bin Musa). The portico consists of three
long bays set side by side with a high fluted dome
in the central bay. The portico is open on three sides
with the entrance in the middle of the north side
formed by a stone door frame. The portico leads into
the main part of the mosque which contains a
rectangular vestibule and a prayer hall. The vestibule
is an arcade of three bays resting on two thick
columns and opening into the main prayer hall. The
central bay of the arcade is covered by a fluted dome
and is flanked by two flat-topped cross vaults. The
prayer hall is the usual square domed unit although
its diameter is slightly larger (11 m) and the vestibule
on the north side appears to increase its floor area.
The Seljuk-style brick minaret is set on the north-
west side of the mosque, a position which became
traditional in Ottoman mosques.
The capture of Bursa in 1325 led to its growth as
the Ottoman capital city with mosques, khans,
public baths and madrassas. A result of this
centraliz-ing process was the development of new,
more specialized, architectural forms. The most
remarkable changes occurred in mosque architecture
with Orhan’s royal mosque which is an adaptation
of the Ottoman square domed unit to a Seljuk
madrassa plan. The building consists of a central
domed courtyard opening on to three domed
chambers one either side on the east and west and a
larger one on the south side. The building is entered
via a five-bay portico and a small vestibule. The plan
is ultimately derived from the Iranian four-iwan plan
although the northern iwan has been reduced to a
shallow vestibule. The side rooms were used as
teaching areas as the building was also a zawiya, or
convent, and the main room to the south is the
prayer hall. The courtyard dome is higher than that
of the prayer hall and originally had an occulus or
hole at the apex to let in light and air. This plan was
later used by Orhan’s successor Murat for the
famous Hüdavendigâr Mosque which he built just
outside Bursa at Çekirge. This extraordinary two-
storey building combines two functions, a zawiya
on the ground floor and a madrassa on top. The
combination seems particularly surprising when it
is realized that the zawiya represents a mystical
form of Islam and the madrassa represents orthodox
Sunni Islam which would generally have been
opposed to mystical sects. This combination
suggests a royal attempt to incorporate reconciled
mystical and orthodox forces in the service of the
Ottoman state.
The zawiya on the ground floor has the same
basic T-plan as Orhan’s mosque with a central
domed courtyard leading off to iwans; however, in
this building the iwans are vaults instead of domes
and the mihrab projects out of the south wall of the
southern iwan. The walls of the central courtyard
and the prayer hall are raised up above the upper
floor thus forming a two-storey courtyard. The
upper floor is reached by twin staircases either side
of the main entrance which lead upwards to a five-
bay portico directly above that on the ground floor.
Five entrances lead off the portico into the body of
the madrassa which also has a four-iwan plan
around a central courtyard. The centre of the
courtyard is occupied by the prayer hall and
courtyard from the ground floor and so is reduced
to a vaulted walkway with windows opening on to
the courtyard below. To the north of the upper
courtyard between the staircases is a vaulted iwan
which is the main entrance to the upper floor. Either
side of the courtyard are six vaulted cells whilst at
the south end there is a domed room directly above
the mihrab on the ground floor. The same T-plan is
used for the mosque of Murat’s successor Beyazit,
built between 1391 and 1395. Modifications in this
mosque include the positioning of the lateral iwans
along the side of the prayer hall, or in other words
the prayer hall is brought into the body of the
mosque instead of projecting beyond it. This
building is also noted for its portico which is
regarded as the first monumental Ottoman portico
because of its height and the use of wide stilted
arches to create an elevated and open space separate
from the mosque inside. The Yesil Cami built in 1412
has essentially the same plan although the portico
was not completed.
In addition to the royal mosque Beyazit also built
the first great Ottoman congregational mosque or
Ulu Cami at Bursa. The building was begun in 1396
and completed four years later in 1400. Before this
period congregational mosques had usually been
re-used Byzantine churches. The Ulu Cami
represents a different design concept from either
the square domed unit or the Bursa T-plan mosques
and is more closely related to the ancient mosques
of Syria, Egypt and Iraq. The Ulu Cami consists of
a large rectangular enclosure five bays wide by four
bays deep (63 by 50 m) and roofed by twenty domes
resting on twelve massive central piers. The mihrab

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Ottomans (Turkish: Osmanli)
is centrally placed and is on the same axis as the
main doorway. In the second bay in front of the
mihrab is the courtyard represented by an open
dome above a sunken pool. The mosque has two
minarets, one on the north-east and one on the
north-west corner of the mosque; the north-east
minaret was added later by Mehmet I, some time
after 1413. Mehmet also built a smaller version of
the Bursa Ulu Cami at Edirne known as the Eski
(old) Cami which consists of nine domes.
The climax of the first period of Ottoman
architecture was the Yesil Cami at Bursa which was